In any case, Hyundai is recalling the Kona Electric in its home country of South Korea for a battery change due to potential fire hazard. The recall also seems to apply worldwide, although little is known about this.
Hyundai again has to contend with uncertainties surrounding the battery packs in, among others, the Kona Electric. In October, a recall was set up, which also applied to more than 7,800 Kona’s Electric in the Netherlands. Both the battery pack with a capacity of 39 kWh and the battery pack with a capacity of 64 kWh could cause a short circuit, with subsequent fire hazard. The recall was made to update the battery management software and the danger would disappear. Reuters reports, however, that this turned out to be insufficient and that Hyundai is therefore now preparing a worldwide second recall for 82,000 electric cars.
At least in its home country of South Korea, Hyundai intends to exchange the entire battery pack of affected cars. The batteries come from LG Chem, according to Reuters states that Hyundai has gone wrong with preparing the batteries for fast charging. The battery cells themselves would not be the source of the fire hazard. With this second recall, Hyundai would have already lost a total of € 741 million in recalls for electric cars, the lion’s share of which concerns the Kona Electric.
Of course we asked Hyundai Netherlands whether it is already known what this means for Dutch Kona owners. It is possible that thousands of Kona’s will have to be returned to the dealer. It is not yet clear, they say: “At the moment it is not yet known to us what impact this will have on the Dutch fleet. As soon as we know this we will make further announcements about this.”